Peace is Inevitable!

By Olga Ruys

Baha'i Faith on Bainbridge Island

September, 2004

From the reality that fills our media and from the history of mankind this belief seems disconnected. However, it is a vital Baha'i concept that world unity is the next stage in the evolution of mankind. Humanity has developed through stages of social organizations: families, tribes, villages, cities, states and nations, always moving toward a greater unity. Progress to date has been reached through warfare and consultation of world leaders. What path will mankind use to achieve the next level, world peace?

In spite of two world wars and other conflicts, we have become a more interdependent planet. Advances in science, technology, communications and transportation have brought the peoples and resources of the world closer and closer together, moving mankind inextricably closer to our inevitable future.

At the dawn of the nuclear age, Albert Einstein said that everything had changed but our thinking. It seems to me that our thinking is changing, albeit often slowly, as people and organizations work for peace and awareness of the Spirit in man.

The UN established the International Day of Peace in 1981, to annually "mark individual and collective progress toward building Cultures of Peace, and serve as a reminder of our permanent commitment to Peace above all interests and differences of any kind." Acting together we do make a difference. There is a Spirit which brings us together in unity with all our diversity. That Spirit has been summoning us to another level of action from time immemorial as reflected in the religious scriptures of the world. Since Tuesday, September 21st, is the International Day of Peace, it seems appropriate today to share a few quotes.

Hindu Scriptures - The Bhagavad-Gita: "If you want to see the brave look at those who can forgive. If you want to see the heroic, look at those who can love in return for hatred".

Buddhist Scriptures -The Dhammapada: "A man finds no justice if he carries a dispute to violence. No, he who knows right from wrong, who is learned and guides others - not by violence, but by the same law, being a guardian of the law, who shows intelligence: he is called just."

Zoroastrian Scriptures - The Yasht: "We worship the Spirits of the Virtuous to withstand the wrong done by the oppressors who corrupt power and authority; to withstand the wrong done by those yielding to passion, wrath, war, and violence."

Jewish Scriptures - Isaiah 2:3-4: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

Christian Scriptures - Matthew 5:9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."

Islamic Tradition - Words of Muhammad: "Shall I not tell you what is better than prayers and fasting and giving alms to the poor? It is making peace between one another. Enmity and malice destroy all virtues."

Baha’i Scriptures: "It is incumbent upon every man of insight and understanding to strive to translate that which hath been written into reality and action. That one indeed is a man who today dedicated himself to the service of the entire human race. It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens."

World order and peace will be founded only upon the unshakable belief in the oneness of mankind, one human species, a spiritual truth supported by all the sciences. Abandonment of prejudices of all kind, race, class, color, creed, nation, gender, and extent of wealth, is required first, and is inevitable as the earth grows smaller. In essence, peace stems from an inner state supported by a spiritual or moral attitude. It is chiefly in evoking this attitude that the possibility of enduring solutions can be found. The essential spiritual principle of morality is inherent in human nature and ensures that peace is inevitable.